Judith Pipher

{{Short description|American astrophysicist and observational astronomer (1940–2022)}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Judith Pipher

|image = Judith Lynn Pipher.jpg

|birth_name = Judith Lynn Bancroft

|birth_date = {{birth date|1940|6|18}}

|birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada

|death_date = {{death date and age|2022|2|21|1940|6|18}}

|death_place = Seneca Falls, New York, U.S.

|nationality =

|field = Infrared astronomy, submillimeter astronomy, observational astronomy

|work_institutions = University of Rochester

|alma_mater = University of Toronto
Cornell University

|thesis_title = Rocket Submillimeter Observations of the Galaxy and Background

|thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/openview/3ec85a038c2e8a0cc5bd63944f4eb02f/

|thesis_year = 1971

|doctoral_advisor = Martin Harwit

|known_for = Developing infrared detector arrays

|prizes = Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award (2002)
National Women's Hall of Fame (2007)

|spouse = {{marriage|Robert E. Pipher|1965|2007|end={{abbr|died}}}}

|children =

}}

Judith Lynn Pipher ({{nee|Bancroft}}, June 18, 1940 – February 21, 2022) was a Canadian-born American astrophysicist and observational astronomer. She was Professor Emerita of Astronomy at the University of Rochester and directed the C. E. K. Mees Observatory from 1979 to 1994. She made important contributions to the development of infrared detector arrays in space telescopes.

Early life and education

Judith Lynn Bancroft was born on June 18, 1940, in Toronto, Ontario, to Earl Lester Alexander Bancroft and Agnes May Kathleen ({{nee}} McGowan) Bancroft. She was named Junior Miss Homemaker of Ontario when she was sixteen years old. She graduated from Leaside High School in 1958 and earned a B.A. in astronomy from the University of Toronto in 1962.{{cite book|title=Recent Advances and Issues in Astronomy|date=2002|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn.|isbn=978-1-57356-348-2|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0pigQirGQL8C&q=Judith%20pipher&pg=PA164|chapter=Biographical Portraits: Judith Pipher}} Following her graduation, she moved to the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York where she taught science and attended Cornell University. In the late 1960s, she worked as a graduate student of Martin Harwit on a cryogenic rocket telescope experiment.{{cite book|last=Pipher|first=Judith L.|title=Finding the Big Bang|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-51982-3|pages=339–340|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QdcdcMi-xpgC&q=Judith%20pipher&pg=PA339|chapter=Being a young graduate student in interesting times — Ignoring the forest for the trees}} She received her Ph.D from Cornell in 1971. Her dissertation, Rocket Submillimeter Observations of the Galaxy and Background,{{cite book |last1=Pipher |first1=Judith Lynn |title=Rocket Submillimeter Observations of the Galaxy and Background |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ktRYAAAAYAAJ |publisher=Cornell University |access-date=February 26, 2022 |language=en |date=1971 |archive-date=April 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407062545/https://books.google.com/books?id=ktRYAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }} led her into research in the nascent fields of submillimeter and infrared astronomy.

Career and research

Pipher joined the faculty of the University of Rochester's Physics and Astronomy Department in 1971 as an Instructor.{{cite web|title=Judith L. Pipher|url=http://www.pas.rochester.edu/people/faculty/pipher_judith/|publisher=University of Rochester|access-date=December 27, 2013|archive-date=December 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228073328/http://www.pas.rochester.edu/people/faculty/pipher_judith/|url-status=live}} From 1979 to 1994, Pipher was director of University of Rochester's C. E. K. Mees Observatory. In the 1970s and 1980s, she made observations from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Pipher and William J. Forrest achieved promising results with a 32×32-pixel array of indium antimonide (InSb) detectors at a NASA Ames workshop. They reported their results in 1983.{{cite book|last=McLean|first=Ian S.|title=Electronic Imaging in Astronomy: Detectors and Instrumentation|date=2008|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-540-76582-0|page=394|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGHhZf-k8SkC&q=Judith%20pipher&pg=PA394|edition=2nd}} That year Pipher and her colleagues were among the first to use an infrared array camera to capture starburst galaxies.

For the next two decades, Pipher developed ultra-sensitive infrared InSb arrays with the help of colleague William J. Forrest. The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in August 2003. She also worked with Dan Watson and on the development of mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) arrays. Pipher's observational research concentrated on star formation studies and the arrays she designed have been used to observe astronomical phenomena such as planetary nebulae, brown dwarfs, and the Galactic Center. She authored over 200 papers and scientific articles.{{cite web|title=Judith L. Pipher|url=http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall/details/2/223-Pipher|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127030548/http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall/details/2/223-Pipher|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 27, 2013|publisher=National Women's Hall of Fame|access-date=December 27, 2013}}

Pipher was a member of a team at the University of Rochester that developed the NEOCam sensor, a HgCdTe infrared-light sensor intended for the proposed Near-Earth Object Camera. The sensor improves the ability to detect potentially hazardous objects such as asteroids.{{cite news|last=O'Connell|first=Kate|title=The new generation of asteroid hunters is here|url=http://innovationtrail.org/post/new-generation-asteroid-hunters-here-0|newspaper=Innovation Trail|date=April 17, 2013|access-date=December 28, 2013|archive-date=February 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224223044/http://innovationtrail.org/post/new-generation-asteroid-hunters-here-0|url-status=live}}

Honors and awards

Pipher received the Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Rochester in 2002.{{cite web|title=Astronomer Judith Pipher Named to National Women's Hall of Fame|url=https://rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2757|publisher=University of Rochester|date=January 30, 2007|access-date=December 28, 2013|archive-date=November 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106213048/https://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2757|url-status=live}} She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2007 and became involved with its administration.{{cite news|title=A CONVERSATION WITH: Ginny DeJohn and Judy Pipher, co-chairs, National Women's Hall of Fame Induction Committee|url=http://www.fltimes.com/news/local/article_5d549022-245b-11e3-8a43-0019bb2963f4.html|newspaper=Finger Lakes Times|date=September 23, 2013|access-date=December 28, 2013|archive-date=August 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190825221932/https://www.fltimes.com/news/local/article_5d549022-245b-11e3-8a43-0019bb2963f4.html|url-status=live}} A 2009 article in Discover magazine indicated that Pipher was "considered by many to be the mother of infrared astronomy."{{cite news|last=Frank |first=Adam |title=The Violent, Mysterious Dynamics of Star Formation |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/26-violent-mysterious-dynamics-of-star-formation |newspaper=Discover |date=March 26, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228202351/http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/26-violent-mysterious-dynamics-of-star-formation |archive-date=December 28, 2013 |url-status=dead }} Asteroid 306128 Pipher was named in her honor. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on January 31, 2018 ({{small|M.P.C. 108698}}).

She was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.{{cite web|url=https://aas.org/grants-and-prizes/aas-fellows|title=AAS Fellows|publisher=AAS|access-date=September 30, 2020|archive-date=March 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210318002452/https://aas.org/grants-and-prizes/aas-fellows|url-status=live}}

Personal life and death

While at Cornell, Judith met Robert E. Pipher (1934–2007),{{cite web |title=Robert E. Pipher Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/star-gazette/name/robert-pipher-obituary?pid=99791601 |work=Star-Gazette |access-date=February 26, 2022 |location=Legacy.com |date=December 18, 2007 |archive-date=February 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226080003/https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/star-gazette/name/robert-pipher-obituary?pid=99791601 |url-status=live }} who brought her four stepchildren when the couple married in 1965.{{cite news |title=Dr. Judy Pipher Day proclamation |url=https://www.fltimes.com/dr-judy-pipher-day-proclamation/article_2c0505e6-4103-5e92-8247-783d0f7c3a83.html |access-date=February 26, 2022 |work=Finger Lakes Times |date=June 19, 2020 |language=en |archive-date=February 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226080008/https://www.fltimes.com/dr-judy-pipher-day-proclamation/article_2c0505e6-4103-5e92-8247-783d0f7c3a83.html |url-status=live }} The Piphers lived at Cayuga Lake in Seneca Falls, New York, where she was vice president of the Seneca Museum board of directors. On the occasion of her 80th birthday, June 18, 2020, was proclaimed to be "Dr. Judy Pipher Day" in the Town of Seneca Falls. She died on February 21, 2022, at the age of 81.{{cite web |title=Passing of 2007 Inductee and Board of Director emerita Judith L. Pipher |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/passing-of-2007-inductee-and-board-of-director-emerita-judith-l-pipher/ |website=National Women's Hall of Fame |access-date=February 24, 2022 |date=February 23, 2022 |archive-date=February 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224132017/https://www.womenofthehall.org/passing-of-2007-inductee-and-board-of-director-emerita-judith-l-pipher/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Judith Pipher remembered as a trailblazer in the field of infrared astronomy |url=https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/judith-pipher-remembered-as-a-trailblazer-in-the-field-of-infrared-astronomy-513012/ |website=NewsCenter |publisher=University of Rochester |date=February 25, 2022 |access-date=May 27, 2023 |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009031318/https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/judith-pipher-remembered-as-a-trailblazer-in-the-field-of-infrared-astronomy-513012/ |url-status=live }}

References

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web

|title = 306128 Pipher (2010 JP109)

|work = Minor Planet Center

|url = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=306128

|access-date = February 6, 2018

|archive-date = January 9, 2020

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200109191043/https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=306128

|url-status = live

}}

{{cite web

|title = MPC/MPO/MPS Archive

|work = Minor Planet Center

|url = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html